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Tuesday, February 6, 2018

CN Woodchip Cars - A Follow Up

The CN woodchip car project is still going on. Given it is the only set of cars
missing on the layout before calling the rolling stock roster complete, I’ve
decided to work again on it as information will be available. I won’t stress
enough the help Justin Babcock has already provided and which insure these
models to be as accurate as one can be. This is even more important since these
cars have not visited Quebec City area since many years.

This is a sketch, not a scale drawing

One of the
reason why I started the project again was Julien Boily’s interest in acquiring
a few of these woodchip cars. A few years ago, printing one car in Shapeways
Frosted Ultra Detail (FUD) material was expensive… really expensive. Well over
160$ (Canadian dollars) per car and mind you, I worked a lot to make sure to
trim down any excess material I could to drop down the price. A recent visit on
my Shapeways account shown these cars could be printed in FUD for about 72$,
which is quite high, but an impressive improvement. Given the price halved over
a few years is a testimony to this technology becoming more mainstream.

In the best
of worlds, I would print prototypes, make a few silicon molds and recast them
happily. The truth behind this is I’m not equipped to do so and know very well
it would cost me a sweet amount of money just to get started, experiment and
get comfortable enough with the process to handle it with confidence. I’m
always happy to learn new things, but I’m no super hero and I still have plenty
of stuff on my benchwork (highway overpass, roads and streets, several
structures including very large ones). However, I’m open to work with anybody
wanting to push it forward.

This is a sketch, not a scale drawing

In the case
of Hedley Junction, we need about 10 cars. Given series 878 000 had 300
cars and series 879 000 had 500 cars; the ratio is 3:5. In our case, having four 878 000 cars and
six 879 000 cars would be plenty enough for our needs.

As thing
are standing now, series 878 000 (of CN Rail fame) 3D model is complete. I
still want to refine a few details, but I would call it almost ready for
printing. For series 879 000, nothing has been done yet. However, both
cars have similar features, meaning what I’ve learned on the 878 000 can
be adapted to 879 000. It is my goal that both models can be available on
Shapeways at some point.

Another step
will be to create accurate decals for these cars… That could be tricky…

2 comments:

René, as much as possible, I would like to conceal them as much as possible and keep the interior free of protuberance. NMRA recommends about 5 oz. of weight for this car (I think it is a little bit on the light side though). They are two options which are both compromises. First, sandwich a lead sheet (about 2mm thick) between the frame and underframe. That would probably raise the floor level about 2 or 3 mm above the prototypical height. Under normal viewing it wouldn't be detrimental, however, the cleanout doors would no longer align with the raised floor. The other option is taking advantage of the low side sills to hide weight directly under the car. It wouldn't impact the floor and would be almost unnoticeable on the layout. Brake rigging could be added after. This is the method often used to add weight to flat cars and gondolas. Finally, a third option would be similar to what Rapido did with their mill gondola and use a steel plate to model the floor. A 1/8" thick steel plate would be sufficient though it would raised the floor quite a bit. Also, it would need to be perfectly straight and glued to the delicate underframe. Not a recipe for a great succes.

Under such circumstances, given the open interior is more important than a well hidden underframe, I feel the best option is stuffing the underframe with lead. With some care, the weight could be easily concealed as much as possible.

About The Club

Our layout is about capturing small-time branchline railroading in Eastern Canada during the early 80s. Built by three modellers, this HO layout is mainly dedicated to the Old Capital former CN Murray Bay Subdivision linking together Quebec City, Montmorency & Charlevoix counties. We also share an interest in its former constituant railways including Canadian National Railway (CNR) and Quebec Railway Light & Power Co. (QRL&PCo).

The original founding crew, still in active service since February 2007, is made of Louis-Marie Huot (Provincial Government Official), Matthieu Lachance (Architect, O.A.Q.) and Jérôme Langlois-Lavoie (real-life Locomotive Engineer). Many fellow "brakemen" assist the group on an irregular basis.

A special thanks goes to the late Mr. Jean-Pierre Veilleux (†2016) who was a precious source of historic facts and a dedicated railfan since the early 50s onward.